Stereogum’s 50 Favorite Songs Of 2013

Determining the year’s best albums is, admittedly, a subjective pursuit. But even more than an albums roundup, a list of songs is an intensely personal way to sum up a year in music. It is a process of appreciating the trees in a forest so sprawling it can never be mapped out entirely, celebrating the tallest, softest, stockiest, or most luxuriously shady timber (but probably not “Timber”) in our neck of that woods. This practice can offer a glimpse of the big picture, but on balance it’s about the details — the casual inflection of a syllable, an unexpected burst of echo, the faint emergence of harmony flickering within a shrill downpour of noise — that make us fall in love with a musical moment. So although there’s some value in sussing out The Songs That Ruled 2013 (as if “Blurred Lines” isn’t still stuck in your head), it seems right to encapsulate the best tracks of 2013 by offering each Stereogum staffer’s personal favorites.

Not that it would be impossible to find some consensus in these playlists. Once we decided there could be no overlap, there were some ferocious battles over who got to keep which songs, and some of those battles came right down to, ahem, “The Wire.” Certain singles stood out so clearly that they would have repeated several times over if given the chance. Turns out the American Dream is also the Stereogum Dream: Everybody wants a “Bugatti” and a “Dream House.” If you believe Kanye West, the American Dream also involves “New Slaves,” and while that thought makes us squeamish, we certainly fought over that song too. As it stands, the presence of multiple selections by Daft Punk, Disclosure, Haim, and Kanye affirms what our album rankings already established: Those artists released a lot of amazing songs this year.

Even more common than our agreements, though, were our resounding disagreements. Like any list of favorite songs, there are many outliers here, moments that struck one us in a profound way and stuck with us for the rest of the year, little personal soundtracks that carried us through our triumphs and frustrations. Whether that meant getting ratchet with Ty$ and Juicy J or howling our lungs out with Arthur Ashin or feeling some type of way with Rich Homie Quan, it always meant something. Not all of these songs resonated universally, but on a micro scale at least, they accomplished the goal of forging a connection with the listener. Below, we’ve expounded on those connections; perhaps they’ll click with you too.

Scott Lapatine
2012 was one of my favorite years for pop radio since the days when Z100 played Matthew Sweet. Many of my favorite songs last year — “We Are Never Getting Back Together,” “Somebody That I Used To Know,” “Call Me Maybe,” “Die Young” — notched multiple weeks on Billboard‘s Top 10. But over these past 11.5 months, I wasn’t as enthralled by the reigning mega hits. Sure, “Royals” was stuck in my head for the better part of autumn, but when it came to the sounds that got the most plays on my iTunes, the sources were a bit more unexpected: an “I Want Candy” homage from the year’s bubblegoth MVP, a maybe-too-wavy Bronson/Fraud EP outtake, a couple of crude hip-hop love songs, the big beat soundtrack to my kid’s new favorite music video, a transcendent yacht-prog b-side from a pair of Mexican Summer bros. Three of the tracks included here come from the best albums of the year; several weren’t on any albums. So it was a great year if you knew where to look/listen (Stereogum.com, duh). I didn’t even have room on this list for Sky Ferreira.

Tom Breihan
I wasn’t looking for through-lines when I put my top 10 together, but looking at it now, they exist. My list has unabashed car-radio singalongs: “Bugatti,” “Type Of Way,” “Get Lucky.” It has slinky new-wave anthems: “White Noise,” “Falling,” “After You.” It has an out-and-out country-radio weeper in “I Drive Your Truck.” In “New Slaves” and “Nosetalgia,” it has a couple of sparse bangerz that, when you stop and think about them, are pretty fucking depressing. And, right at the top, it has Miley Cyrus’s “Wrecking Ball,” which is all those things at once. This is the year where Miley became the lazy person’s walking embodiment of What Is Wrong With America’s Kids, and she’s the prime reason your mom asked you what twerking was in the single most uncomfortable conversation you had all year. (Just guessing here.) And if you wanted to look for reasons to dismiss her forever, the “Wrecking Ball” video will give you plenty of those. But one night, when I was driving home and scanning through stations, I had a chance encounter with the song that left me shattered. It’s an expert piece of assembly-line pop music with a magnificent ten-ton chorus, and you can engage with it on that level just fine; the synth-plinks alone are heavenly. But it also sounds like the howl of a person just barely holding herself together; it transcends the professional. And all it ever did was wreck me.

Michael Nelson

There’s something inherently dishonest about this list as I’ve assembled it — generally speaking, a whole bunch of my music-listening hours are consumed by metal records, but here, I chose to exclude metal entirely. Having just published our Top 50 Metal Albums Of 2013 list, it felt kinda redundant to once again give props to Deafheaven or Carcass or whatever. But if I were being completely honest, both Deafheaven and Carcass (and Inquisition, and Windhand, and In Solitude, and Darkthrone, and Kvelertak, and SubRosa…) would be somewhere on this list (and this list would be a lot longer). I also very reluctantly left off anything from Burial’s Rival Dealer EP, because honestly, I couldn’t choose between the three tracks, and for me, the EP functions better as a complete listening experience than a set of individual songs (though all three songs are hands-down great); if we were voting again today, I honestly believe the EP would have been somewhere in the upper reaches of our 50 Best Albums Of 2013 list. All that said, I fucking love the hell out of every song I did include here. I can’t believe none of my co-workers fought and/or bargained with me for “Black Skinhead.” The day Yeezus leaked, Claire and I sat in Stereogum’s offices listening to the album on repeat all day — it was such an exciting and fucked-up and addictive record — and every time we looped back around to “Black Skinhead,” my pulse shot up and my head started buzzing. To me, it was obviously the biggest and best song released in 2013, and all year, it’s been at the top of my playlists, on my speakers and headphones, still on repeat, still exciting, fucked-up, addictive.

Chris DeVille
Not sure if this makes me a laggard or a cheater or a lame, but three of my picks were technically unveiled in late 2012. In keeping with the old Pazz & Jop rule regarding a song’s primary year of impact, I left them in because their impact on my 2013 was deep. “Before We Run” sounds like the years gently turning, and it guided me through this one with grace. In contrast, “22” remains an expertly crafted snapshot of a specific time in life. (Dare I lean on the year’s most tired metaphor and call it an Instagram selfie? I dare!) I love how “22” is either aspirational or nostalgic depending on which side of the age divide you approach it from. Do you know what I love even more? Motherfucking “Latch.” Disclosure’s guest-laden Settle was a rare convergence of so many young talents hitting their stride at the same time, all of them feeding off each other’s burgeoning creative energy, and the most resplendent wallop of them all was that “Latch” chorus drop, Sam Smith’s fiery falsetto rattling the rafters as tectonic rippling synths threaten to rip apart the floor. It made me very happy many times over, and I don’t even go to the club. As for the rest of the list, “Peace And Quiet” offers the sobbing, snot-bubble photonegative of that “22” snapshot, and the frankly gorgeous/gorgeously frank “Step” is the next logical progression from there. “Started From The Bottom” and “Versace,” ridiculous in different ways, triggered compulsive tourettic giddiness long after the songs ended. And “Doin’ It Right,” “Hood Pope,” and “Life Round Here (Remix)” each found some of modern music’s most wonderfully distinctive voices reaching heights heretofore unseen, changing the shapes of their respective genres — and my year — for the better. (Yes, that means I liked the Daft Punk song better than anything Panda Bear’s ever done. You wanna fight?)

Miles Bowe
There is little in common musically with my top songs of the year. Here gauzy black metal and Suicide-esque rock-a-billy cozy up next to futuristic R&B, a rare glimpse of Danny Brown’s vulnerability, and the most heartbreaking re-imagining of “Call Me Maybe” ever recorded. What connects them is simple though. These ten songs touched me more than any others this year, they were the ten most important songs to me, and every one transports me somewhere. Looking back, I still remember sitting on my fire escape as OPN’s “Chrome Country” hit that final cathartic organ note, completely speechless knowing without a doubt I just heard my favorite album of the year. It was the year my faith in Death Grips was renewed, courtesy of their best song to date. Sitting in Electric Lady Studios at the first listening party for Reflektor was the first time I truly unabashedly fell in love with Arcade Fire, but it was nothing compared to hearing “Afterlife” synched up with the devasting and beautiful closing moments of Black Orpheus. Krill’s “Infinite Power” became a sort of personal remedy throughout the year, something that kicked away every anxiety and self-conscious thought for a few perfect minutes. And finally I think of the many long bus rides back and forth from Boston soundtracked by Wakesleep’s “To Anyone.” For 12 minutes it repeats a simple loop, like a mantra, twisting and tweaking it, stretching and examining this one music moment from every angle, and repeating its abstract phrase until it grows into something profound and universal.

Big ups to you for saying exactly what I was going to say with the first comment! It can be such a hassle scrolling through 20 comments to see whether or not anyone has already said what I want to say before I have the chance to say it.

I can’t believe you guys like Fast Animals so much. I woulda gone with Tap Out and Made In Japan before Fast Animals. You know, I actually don’t even really like Fast Animals at all, and I LOVE Slow Animals.

That’s true, it did come out on an album this year. Though by that standard, M.I.A.’s Bad Girls would be near the top of all year-end lists. But “Nuclear Seasons” never got the attention it deserved so right on. Did you notice how the melody in the pre-chorus totally rips “It’s My Life”?

I’ll hop into a car with M. Nelson anytime. That new AFI album is so good. You don’t know how many death scenes I’ve imagined of sworn enemies playing out in my head to “I Hope You Suff–” — I’ve said too much.

We did this like a fantasy baseball draft: Once the person ahead of you in the queue chose a song, it was unavailable to everyone else (thus no overlap on any of these lists). That said, I don’t know if there would have been much overlap anyway. And thanks!

I like her a lot but something falls a bit short for me – she comes across as a bit too controlled, a bit too sterile to my ears. And while her singing is technically great, her voice feels a bit thin to me. I really notice the difference when Erykah Badu guests on QUEEN – she’s a veteran now, but she’s always had such a rich voice, and really seems comfortable in her own skin.

I can see what you mean with the Erykah comparison, particularly as I’ve been listening to Erykah’s debut lately. That said I think she has a good voice, but it isn’t really her selling point. She is definitely meticulous so I can see what you mean by controlled as well. She still makes an awesome diverse album that I can’t stop dancing too though!

Haha yeah I agree. I heard this song when my mom was watching CMT and commented that it was kind of dumb to write a song about driving someone else’ truck, when I actually listened to what the song was about I ended up really liking it.

I’m starting to think “Fuckin Problems” is being considered as a 2012 song, even though that song grew into something larger than life in 2013. Seeing Kendrick Lamar perform his verse from that song TWICE seems to support its larger than life quality.

I gotta side with Michael with “Black Skinhead” at #1. I know it felt too soon when we voted for Song of the Summer, but “Black Skinhead” WAS my song of the summer for the reasons listed. It got me so fucking pumped. Eventually my Yeezus listening habits involved “On Sight” & “Black Skinhead” then I’d pull the CD out and put in something else. But ever since he blew the lid off SNL with that “Black Skinhead” performance, I’d found something amazing. That Kanye scream is so cathartic. Also, BIG bonus points for Jack Donoghue’s (SALEM) involvement with the song, whatever it was.

Then this: “… I couldn’t choose between the three tracks, and for me, the EP functions better as a complete listening experience than a set of individual songs…” is basically what I just got finished typing in the Burial thread when this one was posted. True story.

Also, do remixes count? Because “Love Is Lost (Hello Steve Reich Mix by James Murphy for the DFA)” is still blowing my mind. Or James Blake’s rework of Drake’s bonus track “Come Thru”? Or the extended mix of XCX’s “What I Like” with Danny Brown spitting a surprisingly PG-13 verse? Those would all be 2013 highlights for me.

“Fuckin’ Problems” was technically released in October of 2012. I had it on my 2013 list because the album itself didn’t arrive until January and for whatever reason I was under the wrong impression the single dropped in December, meaning no one else had it on their year-end list last year (I checked Pitchfork and know for sure they didn’t.)

I kind of hate that about the last few months of the year when there’s often new singles for albums coming out the following year, but you’re unsure whether to qualify it for this year’s year end list or wait for the entire body of new material to arrive. My general rule of thumb is that if its pre-December, it’s fair game for the current year. If it’s post-December, it can qualify for the following year and when the album it’s on comes out. If I knew “Fuckin’ Problems” came out in October ’12 when I published my list, I would have gone with another A$AP song, because there were several heavies on that LP.

It really does prove how cohesive that album is… I could never “Settle” on an exact go-to favorite myself, which is why I just label it my AOTY. If I had to pick my favorite closer of an album though, “Help Me Lose My Mind” would win, no contest.

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